I looked at Caleb. His face was ashen.
“We need to try to get out of here now with those we’ve found,” Caleb said. “If we stay here longer, we risk losing not only their lives, but our own.”
“Maybe some others are kept in Stellan’s island,” I said hopefully.
“They took them upstairs,” a weak voice spoke behind me. I turned to face the humans in the corner. A girl with wide brown eyes and curly black hair, no older than fourteen, had spoken. I walked over to her, bent down and touched her shoulder.
“U-upstairs?”
She nodded, flinching at my touch.
My stomach clenched. I swallowed back the lump in my throat and stood up, looking over the humans.
So we’ve lost the others. We just have to do our best to save these people now.
“I thought you looked upstairs?” Ibrahim said.
“They’re being kept in a spell room,” Kiev said.
Before more disturbing details could be discussed about the state of those humans in front of the ones before me, I addressed the group. “It’s okay,” I said, “We’re going to get you out of here now. Please, stand up. We need to leave.”
The poor teens were so shell shocked they struggled even to stand. We all gathered around them, helping them up, and herded them back toward the room that held the gate. Kiev entered last and bolted the door shut.
“Caleb and Rose,” Aiden said. “Why don’t you two go down first and wait for these humans at the other end? We’ll make sure they get there safely.”
Caleb and I leapt through. I held on tight to him as we hurtled down, wincing at the way my stomach somersaulted.
Landing on the other side, I knew immediately that something was wrong. Very wrong. The room was veiled with smoke, and the temperature was much higher than when we’d left. I climbed up and poked my head through the hole where the trap door had been. The door to the chamber above the basement was closed, but smoke was leaking through the bottom of it. I shot Caleb a panicked glance.
The dragons have been breathing too much fire.
The first of the humans began flying into the room, landing on the floor all around us. Several of them began coughing immediately at the smoke. About a minute later, everyone was through the gate. We all climbed up into the room above and I approached the door nervously. I opened it ever so slightly and peered through the crack. A wave of heat scorched my eyeballs, blurring my vision. I clasped a hand to my mouth. The entire entrance hall was ablaze. Walls of fire closed in around us, blocking the windows and the exit.
I slammed the door shut, choking, and looked toward Ibrahim.
“We’re going to need water. Lots of water.”
Chapter 26: Rose
Two girls fainted behind us from the fumes. Griffin and Gavin picked them up and flung them over their shoulders.
“Hurry,” I said.
Ibrahim rushed to the door and opened it slightly. More smoke spilled through. To my horror, he stepped right out and slammed the door behind him.
“What—?”
I hurried to the door instinctively and was about to open it to peer through, but Aiden held me back. “Ibrahim knows what he’s doing. Don’t open it again. We’re suffocating enough as it is.”
I pressed my ear against the door. “Ibrahim?”
I heard him muttering a chant on the other side, giving me relief that he was all right.
The door opened again about a minute later and this time, it wasn’t to another wave of smoke. Cool air drifted inside. I looked over Ibrahim’s shoulder to find myself looking down a narrow tunnel of flowing water, blocking off the flames on all sides and leading directly to the main exit.
Thank God we brought a warlock.
Ibrahim opened the door wide, then stepped back into the tunnel of water he had just created.
“It’s safe to come now,” he said calmly.
We ushered the humans out of the room and instructed them to follow Ibrahim in single file. He began leading them toward the end of the tunnel. Carrying two girls, Gavin and Griffin followed before the rest of us. The humans gazed around at the water in awe. I was sure that most of them believed that they were in a dream.
I heaved a sigh of relief as a freezing gust of fresh air blew through the entrance.
Soon we had all passed along the tunnel and were standing outside on the snowy steps. The teenagers were dressed mostly in T-shirts and shorts. They began to shiver.
We all looked upward. The dragons were still circling the turrets of the castle like a dark, deadly cloud.
“I’m going to go up there now and bring them back down,” Ibrahim said.
Ibrahim vanished. When he reappeared again, he was high up in the sky, levitating beside the silver-orange scaled form of Jeriad. I watched them exchange some words and then they all descended to the ground. Several of the younger teens screamed as they noticed the beasts.
I hurried toward them, holding out my hands. “It’s okay. They’re not going to hurt you.”
I doubted a single human heard my words amid their own screaming.
“Silence!” Kiev bellowed.
The teens fell silent instantly, their eyes now fixed on the grumpy green-eyed vampire in fear.
“It’s okay,” I repeated, even as the dragons touched down on the mountain. “They’re here to help you, I promise.”
Jeriad climbed over the rocks toward us.
“What happened?” Caleb called up to him.
“The witches didn’t put up much of a fight,” Jeriad replied. “They tried at first to protect the castle, but once they saw how many of us there were, they vanished… What took you so long?”